This invention relates to a connector comprising a differential pair of signal contacts for high-speed signal transmission.
For example, this type of connector is disclosed in JP 2011-9151A (Patent Document 1), the content of which is incorporated herein by reference.
Referring to FIG. 15, Patent Document 1 discloses a connector comprising a housing (not shown) and a plurality of lower terminals (contacts) 90 held by the housing. The contacts 90 include a differential pair of two signal contacts 90S for high-speed signal transmission. Each of the signal contacts 90S has a horizontal portion 92 which is to be in contact with a mating contact (not shown) of a mating connector (not shown) and an intersecting portion 94 which extends in a direction intersecting with the horizontal portion 92 to be fixed to a circuit board (not shown). For each of the signal contacts 90S, the intersecting portion 94 is partially provided with a wide portion 942 which is wider than the horizontal portion 92, so that impedances of the two signal contacts 90S are matched with each other.
However, even in a case where the impedances are matched as disclosed in Patent Document 1, signal degradation such as signal distortion might occur as signal frequency increases. In other words, when a high-frequency signal is transmitted, preferable frequency characteristics cannot be obtained merely by the impedance matching.